Swimming paddle



e. L. PARKER. SWIMMING RADDLE. APPLICATION FILED JUNEZY, 192lggg g 11Patentefi Mar. 14, 1922;

I/VYE/VTOR,

GEORGE 1.. PARKER:

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. To allwhom it may concern:

PATENT osr caw .anoner. 1.. runs, or mmnmroms; nmimsora.

swmmmo PADDLE.

Specification of liettersratent. Patented -Mar. 14, 1922.

' Application filed June 27, 1921. Serial No. 480,611.

Be it known that I, GEORGE L. PARKER, a

citizen of the United States residing at Minneapolis, in the county offlennepin and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Swimming Paddles, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to swimming paddles and an object is to provide adevice which will act as'an aid to swimmers so as to increase their s edin traveling through the water and wil also enable beginners to remainupon the surface with greater ease. Another .objeet is to provide adevice of this character which may be easily applied to the hands andquickly released therefrom and which when released will float upon thewater. Another obj ect is to provide a paddle which may be retained inplace upon the 'palm of the hand without cramping any of the members ofthe hand.

The full objects and advantages of my invention will appear inconnectlon with the .detailed description thereof and the novel featuresembodied in my inventive idea will be particularly pointed out in theclaims.

In the accompanying drawing which illustrates the application of myinvention,

Fig. 1 is a plan view showing the position of the right hand when theswimming paddle is held thereby. Fig. 2 is a view of the device insection at the position indicated on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.-

As shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings, the paddle is intended to rest uponthe palm of the hand and the inside of the fingers with the middlefinger inserted in a hole 10 which is located toward the outer end ofthe device and nearer one side than the other. The inner end isconstructed re-entrant at 12 with the portion at 14 extending outfurther than the portion at 16 and the remainder of the outline of thedevice is curved. On account of this construction, the. hand fits uponthe device. so as to be equally spaced from the sides thereof and there-entrant portion accommodates the hand so that the thumb extends uponthe opposite face of the addle from that which is engaged by the ngers,so that the paddle is held firmly by the pressure of the thumb and allof the members of the hand are arranged in' such' position that nocramping action thereof is produced. It will be observed that the deviceis interchangeable for the right and left hands, it

being necessary only to place one hand or the other in engagement withopposite faces of the paddle according to which hand is being fittedtherewith. Therefore, one pattern serves for both hands and itismecessary to var the pattern in size only to provide for di erentsizes of hands. The device may be made of wood or other suitable sheetmaterial. 6

As shown in Fig. 2, the device may be made hollow so as to provide anair chamber 18, and in this form may be made from any suitable sheetmaterial, but aluminum is considered preferable on account of itslightness and freedom from rust. The sheet material constituting thewalls of the air chamber has the edges overlapped at 20 and. brazedtogether so 'asf-tq'form a tight joint. The hole 10 is formed byoverlappi the. edges ofthe material 'atthis place and razing the sametogether. This serves to strengthen the walls of the blade and preventthem from being stressed out of proper position. 4 v

The operation and advantages of my invention will be understood from theforegoing description. The device is readily applied to either hand byplacing one side or the other in contact with the palm of the handaccording to whether it is the right or left hand. The middle finger isinserted in the hole in order to retain the outer end of the device inplace and the device as a whole is retained in placeby grippin the innerend between the palm'of the ban .and'rthe thumb. U on releasing the gripof the thumb, the ban is at once freed from the device so that the handsof the swimmer are free to grasp objects or persons who need assistancewhile in "the water. The paddles on account of being light or providedwith air chambers will float on the water and on account of-theirbuoyancy will assist in keeping afloat persons provided therewith. Inswimming the pressure comes upon the palm of the hand in a natural waywithout tendency to cramp any of the members of the hand. The edge ofthe paddle may be thinned down or made sloping, as shown, so that thereturn portion of the stroke may be made with ease. Suitable sheetmaterial may be readily stamped out in proper shape to constitute thewalls of the blade and the edges thereof may be secured together in wellknown manner.

I claim:

1. A swimming paddle comprising a blade Q s j 1,409,761

provided with a hole toward the outer end having walls of sheet materialenclosing an 10' thereof whereby when the middle finger is air chamber,said blade being provided with r inserted therein said blade will restsquarely a finger hole which is constituted by overupon the palm of thehand, said blade having lapping edges of the walls whereby said are-entrant portion at its other end so posiblade is strengthened.

tioned that the thumb is adapted to engage In testimony whereof Ihereunto afiix my 15 I the opposite surface of the. blade from thatsignature. engaged by the palm of the hand.-

2; A swimming paddle comprising a blade GEORGE L. PARKER.

